Spokesperson: Ms. Supriya Shrinate said that - The NITI Aayog has come out with yet another narrative setting report and they now claim that India’s poverty has been reduced to 5 per cent which essentially means that only 7 crore Indians are poor nowand everybody else is middle class or rich. But, the devil lies in the detail even if we were to listen to this report, which has come after a gap of 11 years.Remember in 2017-2018, this report on consumption expenditure was concealed by the government primarily because consumption had dipped to a four-decade low.

Because of demonetization because of a flawed GST and which is why even if you were to go with this report, this report actually tells you a very-very unsettling truth and that truth is that the divide between the rich and the poor, between urban and rural India is widening with every single passage of a minute and it’s widening and the government is doing nothing. The biggest headline out of this report is that the poorest 5 per cent Indians are forced to live with 46 rupees a day and that they have to spend on food, on clothing, on transport, on medicine and on education of their children.

If there are only 7 crore Indians, who are poor, why is it that 35 crore Indians cannot afford a two-wheeler or a car or any mode of transport?Why is it that 45 crore Indians today cannot afford television when there are only 7 crore Indians according to you, who are poor?But the reality is that this doesn’t corroborate with the Sofi report that says 74 per cent Indians cannot afford a nutritious diet, 7.7 per cent of our children are malnourished India has been consistently dipping on the hunger index. How do you justify those things? Tuesday, February 27, 2024.